1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field)
The present invention relates to power source electrolytes, particularly alkaline and acidic power source electrolytes.
2. Background Art
Alkaline and acidic power sources are currently employed in myriad consumer applications. Total worldwide sales of these cells/batteries, such as Ni/Cd, Ni/Zn, Ni/Fe, metal/air, Ni/H.sub.2, Ag/Zn, Pb/acid and Ni/metal hydrides, exceeds $2 billion annually. Presently, potassium hydroxide is most commonly used as the electrolyte for those alkaline power sources employing aqueous solutions, and sulfuric acid is the electrolyte often used in acidic systems. In aqueous systems, present salts are highly corrosive and, more importantly, are known to undergo electrochemical reactions to produce corrosive products. In addition, both reactants and products are unacceptably soluble in the electrolyte solutions, which can result in dendritic growth during repeated charging and discharging. As a result, such existing power sources fail prematurely. It is important to note that electrolytes are used only to provide ionic conductivity to facilitate ion mobility in cells/batteries to complete the electrical circuit, and are neither expected nor intended to take part in the electrochemical redox process, per se.
The present invention is of novel electrolytes that exhibit many beneficial properties, such as excellent thermal stability, good ionic conductivity, and a wide electrochemical window in aqueous solvent systems, as described more fully below. The physical properties of solutions prepared using these salts are comparable to those of potassium hydroxide solutions and other common supporting electrolyte solutions, but the salts of the present invention do not have the highly corrosive properties of the most common electrolytes used today.